Are you subscribed to my newsletter? If not, now’s a great time to sign up! I’ve decided to borrow an idea from the ever-brilliant Alicia Forest and do a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway for my readers. During the month of December I’ll send out short email each day for 12 days with a gift for you. I’ll post notes here on the blog but the only way to get the goodies will be if you’re subscribed to my list. Grab your spot so you don’t miss out! Sign up in the box on the top right area of any page.
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Holiday Gifts for my Ezine Readers
20 Actions I Implemented at Attract Clients Like Crazy
I’m sitting in the LA airport waiting on a flight to Seattle, then on home to Anchorage. Decided it’d be a good time to review what I implemented at ACLC. Why am I sharing this? First, because I’m just so darn excited about it all. Second, because I want you to know that if I can do this so can you.
Finding Your Inner Super Hero: Part One, Systems
Do you have good systems? Checklists, charts, planners. Don’t procrastinate on setting up systems. The time you invest to set it up will quickly pay off. Without systems I could never keep up.
Here are some systems that work for me:
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How to Put Together Your Marketing Plan + 2 Free Templates
A marketing plan gives you a basic guide for your marketing for the year.
By looking at your marketing 12 months at a time you can plan for seasonal and holiday promotions, work to combat any traditionally slower times for your company, and keep your business supported by always having at least one or two forms of marketing working for you.
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Blog Makeover and Other News
Woo! My blog has a new look. I’ve updated the layout a bit and reworked the sidebars. My favorite update is the cool new Lifestream widget (bottom right corner of every page). Get yours at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/lifestream/ It’s the same plugin I used a few weeks ago to set up Lisa’s #SendLove stream.
I’ve also moved all my content from The Muses Guide site over here to Michelle Shaeffer to streamline and make it easier to keep everything up to date.
Another bit of news is that I’m going to actually be “blogging” soon and not just posting my newsletter articles online. Exciting.
Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the new look.
What’s Your Marketing Personality?
There are so many options for marketing your business.
Should you write articles? Publish an ezine? Blog? Get on Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? Distribute flyers? Mail out postcards? Hold workshops? Present workshops or speeches? Do in person networking? Network online? Do joint ventures? Radio ads? Contests? Teleclasses? Work with charities? Write a magazine column?
It’s important to know yourself and to acknowledge who you are and what you enjoy when you create your marketing plan.
Do You Really Need to Market Your Business?
First, let’s start with a definition. What is Marketing? Marketing is the process of defining, understanding, and then systematically promoting yourself and your products to your target market in a way that converts into sales of your products or services.
Um… yeah… in English? :) Marketing is how you reach the people that you can help, then share with them how you can help them and give them the opportunity to allow you to help. See, that’s not scary at all. When you define it this way it actually sounds good, right? You want to help people by providing products or services that solve their problems!
What Does Success Look Like?
You wouldn’t start a road trip across the country without a map. Or, you probably shouldn’t unless you don’t care where you end up. So even if you’re a care-free, by the seat of your pants type of woman, a business is best run with at least some basic goals in mind.
Who Are Your Ideal Customers and Where Can You Find Them?
Have you ever thought about this question? I’ll admit, when I first started doing freelance website design about 10 years ago my concern was only the second half of the question – the “where do I find clients?!” part.